Can Anybody Find Me?

Chapter 14

It hunted. These streets were brittle stained glass, the lives hot flares of colour, buring and painful but holding a gravity pulling it to hunt. The Mistress would not allow it to rest until it brought her more of that tastey wrongness. The gray man that had hunted Lone stepped from one patch of darkness out into a murky dawn light. The humans that scurried past it's gaze couldn't properly see it, they never knew what drained their happiness away as they passed by. The creature was designed to steal the strengths away, leaving just overwhelming despair and weakness behind. It wasn't bred to have a consciousness, or even to understand anything beyond obeying the Mistress' wishes. Right now she wished for the gray man to hunt down the thing of interest.

Feed. Eat. Hot. Food. Hungry. Bright. Tastey. So faint, so fragile that zephyr of scent, that wrongness had been here. Gone. Faint. Hungry. Follow. OBEY. It's thoughts were not words as such, but concepts. The creature that even Demons should fear fed off the energy provided by emotions. Hate, anger, happiness, fear, delicious sweet fear. But now the purple-eyed Mistress commanded it to follow the scent trail that was fading to nothing as it followed. Neither the pet nor the Mistress knew what it was they hunted, knew not whether it was Ascended or Descended, and neither cared. It was an Anomaly, and the Mistress demanded that it be tracked down and brought to her.

Suddenly one human passing by stopped, eyes going wide at the sight of the creature looming in the shadows. He started to gibber, unbelieving gasps coming from his chest as he beheld a creature of absolute destruction, designed with no other purpose than to obey the Mistress' commands. The human that could see the Twisted stumbled back, clutching at his chest. Other humans swarmed around him, paniced and calling for help. Their fear and worry combined with his looming heart attack pulled the Twisted from its hunt, a basic need temporarily overwhelming the drive to obey. Here was food.

Tastey. Bright. Faded. Fear. Anger. Denial. Pain. Satisfaction. The Twisted fed off of the powerful energies the human's heart attack and demise stirred up. Unable to let a soul that could see it live, the Twisted fed upon that human until fragile mortal flesh failed and the human's injured heart gave out. But there would be others that could see the Twisted. Those who were Marked, those on their path to Descention and those on their long climb to Ascention. Not many, but it only takes one set of eyes looking for it to see and start to plan.

The Mistress tried to force her pet back onto the task at hand, but it felt something new, revitalized by a fresh soul, the Twisted took a deep breath in, becoming wholly still as it responded to a Call even the Mistress had no power to disobey.

Lone woke from her disorienting nightmare, the details already fading as her mind blunted the terror. It had just been so... alien. She shook her head, chasing the cobwebs away. Her pull out couch of a bed felt strangely empty this morning, and knowing that she had the apartment to herself left her feeling slightly exposed. Even as she scoffed at herself for being a foolish coward, she shuffled over to Belle's door, knocking on it. There were footsteps and then the door creaked open, Belle looking sleepy peering out. Without saying a word the door flung open and Belle launched herself into Lone's arms.

"OHMYGODIWASSOWORRIEDABOUTYOU! Neverdothattomeagain!" she said all in a pair of breaths, then punched Lone lightly on the arm. "Do you know how sick with worry I was?" she slowed down, relief being replaced with upset anger.

Lone blinked down at her friend for a moment, just completely overwhelmed with a sisterly love for the escort who was her best friend. Belle had no alterior motives behind being her friend, she was not more than she appeared to be, and her love for Lone was entirely based on mutual respect and a desire not to be entirely alone except for work. Lone hugged her best friend back, ashamed to find herself close to tears.